Rapper
Radoslav Banga, aka Gipsy, takes modern Roma music to a
new level, blending traditional music and instruments with
pumped-up beats and his rapid-fire rapping. Easily one
of the most enjoyable global albums of the year, Romano
Hip Hop has already won a slew of awards and spent
months in the World Music Charts Europe. And for good reason.
Gipsy,
violinist Vojta Lavicka, accordionist Petr Surmaj and his
bassist brother Jan Surmaj make a glorious sound.
Catchy as pop-laden commercial hip hop, Gipsy's music comes with the extra
appeal of tradition-rooted melodies made modern. Sure,
his attitudinal boasting (some in English) comes off
a bit simplistic but his delivery is solid. Besides, after
generations of oppression, the Roma community is due
a
little cultural pride. So crank up this album, and you'll
soon agree that these gipsy kids can get u down. Highly
recommended!
©2007
Scott Allan Stevens, Earball Media
|
Extra
Golden: Hera Ma Nono (Thrill Jockey)
more info
Kenyan-American group
Extra Golden -- a real group, not a political action committee
-- is two benga musicians from Kenya (Opiyo
Bilongo
and Onyango Wuod Omari) paired with two indie-rockers
from Washington DC (Alex Minoff and Ian Eagleson). The resulting
sound is a curious
mix of African vocals and melodies and Congo-rumba-style
guitar along with various touches of old-school rock,
funk, and a hint of Motown.
Included
on this, their sophomore album, is a song called "Obama"
-- prompted
in part by the group's gratitude to the
Senator from Illinois for helping secure visas for
the Kenyan musicians.Other songs include the
mournful country slide guitar of "I
Miss You," which could
be a country-music tear jerker but for the African lyrics.
The DC boys take over on the tribute to New Orleans "Street
Parade," a straight-ahead rocker with just a hint
of Kenya in the shimmering guitar. Closing the album
is
the title track "Hera Ma Nono" (meaning "love
in vain") -- in which a husband tells
how his wife said she was going to see her brother, but
he suspects
otherwise. For much more about Kenyan benga, rumba, and
Swahili music, check out Doug Paterson's article
on Kenyan music.
Don't
Be a Stranger: One (self-released)
buy CD/hear samples
The
group Don't Be a Stranger might as well be called Onno
Krijn and Friends. Krijn is a Dutch composer/producer
who has recorded a slew of great musicians from around the
planet, and on this CD he takes some of those recordings
and adds his own touches. The result is a global mix of styles
from Africa (Senegal, Ethiopia), Iraq, Asia (India, Tibet,
Indonesia) Scotland, the USA, and the Netherlands that has
reviewers using words like brilliant, hypnotic, and astounding.
I can't disagree.
Yildirim
Levent: Neverland Fusion (Le Chant
du Monde)
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Dumbek
rock. That's the first impression when you pop this CD
in and hear the finger-rolls of "Half Mind" give way to
a progressive rock-band sound. In place of the guitar,
however, you've got Ismail Tunebilek's electric baglama.
Over bass and drum programming soar the traditional acoustic
instruments of Levent's native Turkey: oud, violin, ney,
riqq, kanun. Levent strikes a teetering balance
between the electronic and the acoustic -- the result is
more more
Shakti than Tabla Beat Science, with danceable tunes ("Je
m'amuse," "Septembre a Pompignac," "Ritim Saz"), contemplative
tracks ("Neverland Fusion," "No End"), and some with a
bit of everything
("Half Mind," "Kamalesh"). Nice to have an enjoyable,
forward-looking Turkish release from someone besides Mercan
Dede. Includes a DVD with one short (6-minute) but impressive
percussion video, though the menu is defective
and the DVD wouldn't play in my computer.
Anoushka
Shankar & Karsh Kale: Breathing Under Water (Blue
Note)
buy CD/hear samples
Wonder
what Daddy Shankar thinks... Oh sure, he contributes to
two tracks on this album ("Oceanic" parts 1 and 2), but
even Ravi the great collaborator might consider this album
kind of out there. Noah Lambersky's vocals on "Burn" sound
like a lost Sting pop song...wait, turns out Sting did
the arrangement! (He also takes lead vocals on "Sea Dreamer.")
Norah Jones joins her sister on "Easy," which is a little
too easy for my ears and which suffers from incomprehensible
lyrics -- in English!
Other
tunes also veer firmly along the Highway to Pop, though
in theory I should like them because
of
the
Indian
instrumentation that pervades the album. The Bollywood-esque
"Ghost Story" featuring vocals by Sunidhi Chauhan and
the Bombay Cinematic Orchestra is among my favorites, as
is "A Perfect Rain" with dynamic vocals by Shankar Mahadevan.
But overall I find this album a little puzzling -- it's
not exactly the Indian fusion of Anoushka's Rise,
nor the dance electronica favored by Kale. I guess I'd
call it
ambient acoustic-electronic world fusion, but that doesn't
mean I'll be calling on it often.
©2007
Scott Allan Stevens, Earball Media |
